海角大神

So, this guy tries to steal a loaf of bread, one lousy loaf. Gets caught. No public defender. Convicted. Serves 19 years as a galley slave. Hates the world. But a hundred and some years later, this convict becomes the male lead (top billing) in full-length feature film dramas (1934, 1935, 1952, 1958, 1982, and 1998), a 1952 TV movie, a TV miniseries in 2000, and a pretty good 1995 cinematic knock-off. Then there鈥檚 the long-running Broadway musical. A musical! You gotta be kidding, right?
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Translate the above skepticism into argot that is typical in most American prisons today, and you would have the flavor of the response I got from my inmate-students when I ventured the possibility of having those in my in-prison English Composition class take on 鈥淟es Miserables.鈥� 听What was I thinking?
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Well, with the blockbuster 2012 version mounting publicity barricades to fend off assaults (in the awards wars) from a Civil War epic, a secret military mission into Pakistan, and an Iran hostage rescue, my thoughts turned to the Victor Hugo classic (first published in 1862). I wish I had tried to get Jean Valjean into a pair of Connecticut and New York prisons.

Department of Corrections officials are the turnkeys as to curriculum entries. Would they have obliged? The novel is at core a story of redemption and purification, with a few bits of recidivism and full doses of deception-and-evasion to heighten the drama.
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Assuming a DOC official looked into the text 鈥� actually started to read the novel 鈥� would that official have been put off by Victor Hugo鈥檚 1862 preface, which speaks of the 鈥渟ocial condemnation鈥� which 鈥渁rtificially creates hells on earth鈥�?
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Inmate-students would surely identify with the wretched fellow (鈥渁n apparition of ill omen") released from prison galleys after 19 years, who bears the looks of fear and distrust from righteous townspeople; who seeks a meager meal and base lodging only to be turned away again and again; who is so desperate that he seeks lodging in a prison only to be turned away there, too; who, at the age of 25 and unemployed, had turned to stealing (small-time, to be sure) in a desperate effort to feed his widowed sister and her seven children, and who 鈥渆ntered the galleys sobbing and shuddering鈥� and went out, 19 years later, 鈥渉ardened.鈥�
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How ready are DOC officials, corrections officers, parole officers, and pardons commissioners to take cognizance of the 鈥淚gnominy that thirsts for respect鈥�? Maybe they are quite right in being wary and suspicious, for how many Jean Valjeans are there among the two million incarcerated in U. S. prisons? Heck, how many Jean Valjeans are there in society at large?
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In the galleys, Valjean 鈥渉ad constituted himself an inner tribunal鈥� and 鈥渂egan by arraigning himself.鈥� He blamed himself for not having the patience to wait for work or pity, and for imagining that he could 鈥渆scape from misery by theft.鈥� His (well, probably, Victor Hugo鈥檚) verdict on life鈥檚 turns: 鈥淭heft is a bad door for getting out of misery,鈥� for it鈥檚 the portal by which one 鈥渆nters into infamy.鈥� Inmates could identify. 听DOC would approve.
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However, reading on, Hugo delivers a verdict against 鈥渟avage and excessive punishment鈥� which amounts to an 鈥渁buse鈥� by penalty of law that was disproportionate to the crime of the guilty. 听I can hear a chorus of approval from inmates and imagine frowns of disapproval from the DOC. And yet, could the DOC argue with a convict鈥檚 conscience-directed rehabilitation? After all, Jean Valjean did not have the thief gene.
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What makes Valjean so interesting is his transformation. Rightly, he felt oppressed, humiliated and despised: 鈥淚f a millet seed under a millstone had thoughts, doubtless it would think what Valjean thought.鈥� His hatred consumed him and encompassed everyone, not just the law that had condemned and punished him. My God, what if he had had a Glock?
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He 鈥渃ondemned society and sentenced it to his hatred... He had no weapon but his hate... a desire to injure.鈥� On his release, Valjean would have been rightly labeled dangerous and vengeful. Thank goodness he didn鈥檛 have a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle with several high-capacity magazines.
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What Valjean did have was the good fortune, serendipity, or whatever, to steal silver plates from Monseigneur Bienvenu, 鈥渨hose days were full to the brim with good thoughts, good words, and good actions.鈥� This bishop 鈥渂uys鈥� Valjean鈥檚 soul by lying to law enforcement: claiming that he had given the parish silver house plates to Valjean.
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The DOC would rightly, and readily, point out that very few inmates have the good fortune, serendipity or whatever, to have their hatred 鈥渃hecked in its growth by some providential event.鈥�
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Okay, right, but I wish I had championed the reading of 鈥淟es Miserables鈥� because 鈥� 150 years ago 鈥� through the telling of Valjean鈥檚 life journey (yeah, clich茅, I know), Victor Hugo provided a perpetual annuity of providential events and a call for clemency.
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That would have been my reply brief to the DOC. 听But I never made the case to begin with.
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There were pedagogic considerations, of a sort: Yes, for sure, I would have been on a mission of virtue worthy of Monseigneur Bienvenu and Father Madeleine if I had poked and picked through tables of paperbacks at public library book sales in search of gently-read copies of the novel. But even if the used-book-buyers鈥� providence had shined on me and I acquired three dozen copies (for a grand outlay south of sixty dollars), there was a hitch. The inmate students would be reading an assortment of translations and a variety of editions. While we might struggle to line up our own abridgements, to come together by meticulously correlating to book chapter headings, that would have taken some time, and added some difficulty to an undertaking that loomed at 500 pages or thereabouts.
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Still, most of the inmate-students who qualified to take courses (for community college credit) would have been disposed to taking themselves out of their cinderblock for a few hours a day, to put themselves in France, in 1795, when Valjean bungled his bread burglary and was first packed off to the galleys.
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Most of the inmates who qualified to take my Composition and Lit courses were motivated to get away from the prison tedium for a few hours a week and be transported for still more hours of reading that took them out of the cells mentally, and sometimes psychologically and even spiritually. They have more time than the typical college student 鈥� no clubs or frats (well, none that prison officials would countenance), no extracurriculars (that corrections officers were aware of), no highway traffic jams and jammed student parking lots, and no road trips (other than for a mandatory court appearance, a funeral of a close family member, or a medical matter so serious it could not be dealt with inside).
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Many of those inmate-students made better use of their time than many of my community college students on the outside. Most read with relish the few books I managed to scrounge and get approved for entry. They would have related readily to Jean Valjean: 听Many would relate to his desperation, prodigious strength, failure to mount an effective defense, resentments of the shackle and chain, identity as a number (prisoner 24601and later 9430), discomfiture on re-entry, attempts to assume and preserve a new identity, apprehensions about his past (and a pursuer) catching up to him, nemeses and opportunistic informers, escape mindset, strategies for absorbing disdain and ostracism, overriding concern for the child he is determined to protect, and struggles with conscience.
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One inmate, who was a mainstay of the group that stayed after class until 鈥渇inal count,鈥� asked what it was like for 鈥渢his Valjean dude鈥� to be on the run.
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If I had had my wits about me, I would have said (as Victor Hugo did), that Jean Valjean was 鈥渓ike all those joyless fugitives who endeavor to throw off the track, the spy of the law, and social fatality, by pursuing an obscure and undulating itinerary.鈥�

Asked about his conflicts, I would have tried to recall this: 听鈥淗e might be said to carry two knapsacks: 听In one he had the thoughts of a saint. 听In the other, the formidable talents of a convict. 听And he helped himself from one or the other as the occasion required.鈥�
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Asked what Valjean would do if released from the prison where we were standing, my reply was something along these lines: He would start a manufacturing business and be the kind of factory owner who would employ ex-cons. He would buy books to stock the prison library. He鈥檇 fund vocational classes and re-entry counseling, and anger management. He鈥檇 provide seed money for entrepreneurial efforts that would stabilize a neighborhood. He鈥檇 fund after-school programs, youth leagues, and vocational training programs. He鈥檇 probably channel bail money to those who had been wrongly accused and pay for appellate counsel for those unfairly prosecuted.
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With the advent of the new 鈥淟es Miserables鈥� my thoughts again turned to the possibility of promoting the novel. I would be tempted to pass over chapters in which Jean Valjean does not figure prominently. A literary trangression? I would think about making references to several of those 鈥渋mprisoned鈥� by Dickens: Abel Magwitch (鈥淕reat Expectations鈥�) and Arthur Clennam (鈥淟ittle Dorrit鈥�). Literary conceits?
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Assuming DOC readers might actually work their way through 鈥淟es Miserables,鈥� the politics and Valjean鈥檚 abandoning the 鈥渓aw and order鈥� legions for the rebels鈥� barricade might do in any proposal.
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My pitches to the DOC spoke of individual responsibility and rectitude. 听My reading lists include stories of reprehensible conduct duly punished and admirable conduct duly rewarded (in the end, anyway).
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Once past the alarms set off by the title, Martin Luther King, Jr.鈥檚 听鈥淟etter from Birmingham Jail鈥� was usually a 鈥済o.鈥� On the other hand, 鈥淏irdman of Alcatraz鈥� would never fly. 听Robert Stroud, murderer turned ornithologist, had a mean and violent streak: imprisoned for taking one life, he took another while in prison.
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Yeah, Valjean鈥檚 story was one to promote. A hero who does not act out of heroism, but out of a desire to do good and a sense of duty, has a lot of appeal. In the early chapters, we learn about his path to theft and chains, and then as the story unfolds, there are five high-risk rescues: the children from a house ablaze; the fellow being crushed under his heavily-load cart; the man wrongly mistaken for and prosecuted as the recidivist Valjean, who is spared 鈥渢he living burial of the prison galleys鈥� by Valjean鈥檚 in-court absolutions; the topman dangling high above a ship鈥檚 deck and the harbor鈥檚 cold waters, 鈥渙scillating like a stone in a sling鈥�; and the wounded young insurrectionist carried from the barricades to safety via the sewers of 听Paris.
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Few inmates speak of New Year鈥檚 resolutions. Their calendars count time served and days until their parole hearing. Their calendars mark a court date for a possible rehearing or an appeal 鈥� or a visit from the person they鈥檝e been distanced from. They count the days until release, but 鈥渇reedom does not liberate them from condemnation and shunning.鈥�
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They may not be hunted and haunted by a Javert (who Valjean could have shot but spares). Yet, they are 鈥� perhaps quite justifiably in some (many?) cases 鈥� condemned to the stigma of having been a convict.
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Yeah, re-entry is no picnic, no walk in the park. Still, Victor Hugo鈥檚 observations might be worth lingering over: He likened remorse to a tide that returns to man鈥檚 shore (conscience) again and again: an upheaval of the soul. Valjean no longer has a taste for hate. He tastes 鈥渢he bitter flavor of a wicked thought鈥� and 鈥渟pits it out with disgust.鈥�
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Maybe, just maybe, in some prison there鈥檚 鈥渁 white-hair鈥� who, like Jean Valjean, will discover the alchemy of turning hate into service 鈥� with help (considerable help, to be sure) of Providence.
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Joseph H. Cooper was editorial counsel at The New Yorker from 1976 to 1996. 听In additional to his work in prisons and at community colleges, he teaches ethics and media law courses at Quinnipiac University.